They disagreed with former lawmaker Ken Gordon on policy but they sure admired his principles.

Tributes continue to pour in for the Denver Democrat who had served in both the House and the Senate and died suddenly on Sunday at age 63.

“I had a lot of respect for Ken Gordon as a legislator,” Attorney General John Suthers said. “I knew he was a liberal Democrat who’d been a public defender and he knew I was a conservative Republican who’d been a prosecutor. We searched for common ground and found quite a bit. He was always respectful about others points of views and I will miss him.”

Gordon is survived by his son Ben, his daughter Windy, and his longtime companion, Betty Lehman.

“Ken Gordon has left an indelible mark on Colorado as a true servant of the people,” said Ken Salazar, former attorney general and U.S. senator. “He will be missed. Hope and I offer Windy, Ben and Betty our warmest embrace in the celebration of his life.”

Sen. Ken Gordon arrived at the state Capitol in September 2005 carrying a sign showing his support for Referenda C and D. Proponents are walking from the Wyoming border to the New Mexico border to show their support for the ballot measures. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

Three or four weeks ago, I called former Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon to ask if he really planned to run for secretary of state, an exercise that led to a lengthy conversation about money in politics — he abhorred it — and how much journalism has changed since he served in the state legislature.

No, he said, he likely wasn’t going to run for secretary of state and probably would make that clear by the next campaign-finance filing in January. I told him I still remembered his awarding-winning shark ad the first time he ran for secretary of state.

The Denver Democrat died Sunday of an apparent heart attack. He was only 63 and his death stunned his family and friends. Republicans were effusive in their praise, as were his fellow Democrats. They called him a statesman and recalled his passion for the underdog.

I’ve got a zillion memories of Ken, whom I first met in 2000 when I was assigned to cover the Colorado General Assembly. Here are just a few of them:

WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Mark Udall said Sunday that if it was up to him, the federal government would end its bulk e-mail and phone records data collection within the year even though the United States faces increased threats from terrorist groups abroad.

Speaking on ABC News’ This Week, Udall said the way the National Security Agency collects phone records contradicts the 4th Amendment’s ban on unreasonable search and seizure. He maintained it is possible to keep Americans safe without the government holding tens of millions of business phone and e-mail records.

“The arguments for the status quo fell apart this week in Washington,” Udall said. “It’s time to have real reform not a veneer of reform … We’ve got to rebuild the American people’s trust.”

Udall also said the federal government should adopt all 46 of the NSA reform recommendations delivered to the White House last week by an internal review panel of lawyers appointed by President Barack Obama.

It’s an award U.S. Sen. Mark Udall will likely not accept with open arms as he heads into a re-election year.

Sen. Mark Udall at a rally for President Obama in 2012. (The Post)

The Republican National Committee doled out the “Lie Of The Year” award to the Democrat — as well as several other Democrats up for re-election in 2014 — on Wednesday for telling constituents they can keep their same health care policies under President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Well, that was not the case, which, since the roll out of the Affordable Care Act Oct. 1, has been widely reported.

And recently PolitiFact coined Obama’s words — often echoed by the president on the campaign trail and in the months leading up to the roll out — as the political lie of 2013.

From PolitiFact:

This fall, as cancellation letters were going out to approximately 4 million Americans, the public realized Obama’s breezy assurances were wrong.

Boiling down the complicated health care law to a soundbite proved treacherous, even for its promoter-in-chief. Obama and his team made matters worse, suggesting they had been misunderstood all along. The stunning political uproar led to this: a rare presidential apology.

For all of these reasons, PolitiFact has named “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” the Lie of the Year for 2013.

Those words have also been echoed by Udall.

In a 2009 interview with Colorado Springs’ FOX 21, Udall said in regard to the president’s health care reform efforts, “If you have an insurance policy you like, doctor or medical facility that provides medical services to you, you’ll be able to keep that doctor or that insurance policy.”

Thousands of Coloradans enrolled in individual insurance marketplaces would have their current health care policies cancelled next year due to the Affordable Care Act. A one year extension has been implemented for those individuals.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mark Udall gave a Nebraska senator some beer. Sen. Michael Bennet gave a Wyoming senator an old map.

Such is the time of year for the Senate Secret Santas gift exchange, where about three-quarters of the U.S. Senate finds a gift, worth less than $15, for a colleague.

Bennet found a 125 year-old map of Wyoming on Ebay for $8 and gave it to his Republican neighbor to the north, Sen. John Barrasso. Udall gave Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer a pack of New Belgium Accumulation.

(This reporter, who lives in Washington and isn’t up to speed on all the seasonal New Belgium brews, discovered it’s a white pale ale.)

In return, Bennet received some North Carolina-made all natural dog treats from Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan. Bennet has a little black dog. Udall received some golf balls from Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, from Florida where it is undoubtedly better golfing this time of year than Colorado.

Members of the Arapahoe High School cheerleading squad leaves notes, flowers and prayers for shooting victim Claire Davis in Centennial near the school on Dec. 17, 2013. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

More questions than answers remain in the wake of last week’s shooting at Arapahoe High School. But what’s certain is that communities have come together after another shooting incident here in Colorado where crowds of individuals were targeted. Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, and Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, represent the communities directly impacted by the Arapahoe High School shooting. Both join Spot Live to discuss the incident, how the media covers it and what — if anything — could be done to prevent the tragedy.

For a while they were Aurora’s power couple: Karen Middleton served in the state legislature while her husband, Larry Beer, served on the city council.

But Middleton on Tuesday changed her marital status on her Facebook page to “Divorced, November 22” and offered this: “Since it is questionable whether I will get holiday cards out, and despite the fact that this has been in the works for a while, it appears to still be news. It seemed easiest to update my status here. All is well.”

She said today she and Beer have been separated for months and she is dating. But she continues to get Christmas cards addressed to the couple and raised eyebrows when she shows up at events with a date, so she posted the comment on Facebook.

Michael Carrigan, president of the University of Colorado Board of Regents, added his thoughts to a poster board at tonight’s Christmas Party hosted by the Colorado Democratic Party. Carrigan is a Denver Democrat. (Lynn Bartels/The Denver Post)

Beer, wine and holiday cookies — that’s the spread the Colorado Democratic Party put out for it holiday party tonight, prompting the question: Where’s the beef? Or chicken? Or even cheese?

That’s before Democrats captured both chambers of the Colorado Legislature, a trend Colorado Republicans are optimistic about reversing next year, as evidenced by their Christmas Party last week. They believe Christmas came early this year bearing a gift called “Obamacare.”

WASHINGTON — One question I never thought I’d ask an elected official: “Congressman, did you really host a barnyard Christmas party?”

Citing an unnamed source, a Roll Call gossip column reported first that Boulder Democratic Rep. Jared Polis spared no expense to host a Dec. 12 party for his staff.

According to the Capitol Hill newspaper, there was a veritable petting zoo packed into a Washington, D.C. apartment, including bunnies, a goat and a pig.

Speaking from Colorado this afternoon, the congressman said the account is not accurate. He says one of his staffers hosted a holiday party and he suggested she hire a magician.

“But I think there was a chicken or something,” he said.

Polis said he stopped by briefly but said the soirree wasn’t in his apartment.

“It wasn’t in my place or I would have known more about it,” he said.

His chief of staff Brian Branton later left a voicemail saying he hosted the party at Polis’ scheduler’s apartment. He said he loves goats and so there was indeed a petting zoo, “but Jared had nothing to do with it.”

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.